HOLYOKE -- Mayor Alex B. Morse began his campaign for a fourth term on Monday by vowing to ensure Holyoke remains a "beacon for progressive politics that is inclusive of everyone."

"I believed that Holyoke could be that inclusive city once again, no matter what language you spoke, what neighborhood you were born in, what you looked like, where you were from, whether or not your family was involved in politics," Morse said.

His priority, he said, will remain trying to help everyone experience a community that is safe and offers strong public education and a well-paying job.

Morse addressed a room filled with supporters at The Delaney House off Route 5 who chanted "four more years" at the end of his remarks. That was a reference to the election on Nov. 7 being the first with a four-year term for mayor. Terms for mayor have been two years.

"Holyoke has to be the best city in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. We have the best people here in our community. We are full of pride and excited about what is happening here," Morse said.

The event, which was also a fundraiser for Morse, included firefighters staging a protest at the entrance to The Delaney House parking area. Firefighters held signs and said Morse has under-funded the Fire Department to unsafe levels, which Morse later said was untrue.

In his remarks, Morse essentially prepared supporters to expect criticism in the campaign.

Opponents in previous elections have tried "to tear our city down" by warning about unsafe streets and departing businesses, he said.

"We reject those notions. We need a mayor that's going to continue to project a positive image of our community and work every single day to realize that vision," Morse said.

Former city councilor Jay Ferreira, who plans to announce his candidacy for mayor on Wednesday, said among points he will raise is the relegation of the Holyoke public schools into state receivership. Morse has been a "passive observer" who has "shrugged his shoulders and done nothing" in the face of such a drastic step, Ferreira said.

Morse didn't address receivership of the schools during his remarks. He has said previously that receivership was a state decision and that the problems the state cited in the schools grew for years before Morse became mayor in January 2012.

The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on April 28, 2015 decided to place the Holyoke public schools in receivership because students' academic abilities barely improving despite years of warnings.

Stephen K. Zrike, formerly superintendent of Wakefield schools, has been the state-appointed receiver in charge of the public schools here since July 6, 2015.

The mayor is chairman of the School Committee in Holyoke, but the receiver's authority meant the stripping of power from the School Committee and the elimination of the school superintendent, the head of the system formerly appointed by the School Committee. Zrike has continued working with the School Committee, despite its lack of decision-making authority, and said he finds its expertise valuable.

Business owner Fran O'Connell, who ran for mayor against Morse in 2015, made similar assertions about Morse and receivership.

In remarks at the Delaney House, Morse also said the past six years have seen improvements in the schools such as an increase in the high school graduation rate and reduction in the dropout rate.

Noting the presence at the event of Police Chief James M. Neiswanger, Morse touted his public safety record as mayor. Community policing and reinstallation of the canine unit have helped cut crime, he said, though community policing patrols are not as plentiful with tighter spending.

Violent crime including robbery, murder and rape dropped 2.3 percent in 2015 compared to 2014, and the city's rate for property crimes including burglary and vehicle theft fell to is lowest since at least 1997, according to FBI crime data released in September.

Still, the violent crime rate in Holyoke was higher than the national average for communities of similar size. And while robberies decreased, aggravated assaults increased to mirror a 3.1 percent rise in violent crime nationwide, according to the 2015 figures from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program.

In Holyoke, the 2015 violent crime rate of 948.3 offenses per 100,000 residents was the city's the second-lowest since 1997.

The city had 381 violent crimes in 2015 compared to 390 in 2014, showing a net decrease of nine, or a 2.3 percent drop.

"We see crime down to historic lows," Morse said at the campaign event.

A supporter of Democrat Hillary Clinton and critic of Republican President Donald Trump, Morse said the role of a mayor is more important than ever. Local leadership is needed in areas such as climate change, he said. Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris climate change accord that was aimed at limiting the increase in global average temperatures.

Millions of dollars of investment in downtown have the city rising, said Morse, noting the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center on Bigelow Street and businesses like Gateway City Arts on Race Street.

Morse has filed a budget with the City Council to run the city in the fiscal year that begins July 1 of $127.4 million. That's an increase of $1.6 million, or 1.3 percent, above the $125.8 million budget with which the city began the current fiscal year on July 1, 2016.

The City Council is holding budget hearings on accounts in the mayor's proposed budget and has the authority to cut, but not add to, the budget proposal.

Morse returned to the theme about being inclusive. His administration has been focused on including more residents in decision-making about the city than had been the case before he was elected. Now, people are running for office, volunteering on municipal boards and speaking out at government meetings, he said.

"I've always said that this isn't a job that I can do alone," Morse said, adding, "This has been the greatest honor of my life."

The big dispute relating to the funding Morse has approved for the Fire Department has been Fire Chief John A. Pond's decision to use brownouts in managing day-to-day staffing. A brownout is when truck is temporarily removed from service on shifts when staffing is thin.

Brownouts are done to save overtime costs that are incurred when off-duty firefighters are called in to work shifts when firefighters are sick, on vacation or otherwise unavailable. Instead, firefighters on a browned-out truck are temporarily reassigned to other duties.

Morse and Pond have said that the city's four strategically located fire stations and trucks that operate with at least three firefighters each ensure fire protection.

Members of the firefighters union who participated in the protest at the Morse event said the current management system that included use of brownouts compromises the safety of the public and of firefighters.

They also oppose Pond's recommendation to remove Engine 2 from service. Pond said the plan is reassign those firefighters to other trucks, to increase the number of firefighters per vehicle who can respond to an emergency.

Morse has proposed a Fire Department budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 of $8.4 million, though that doesn't include grant funding the city is using to hire 10 more firefighters.

That proposed budget is compared to the $8.7 million with which the Fire Department began the current fiscal year on July 1, 2016.